Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Nearly 40 percent of U.S. households have disconnected from telephone landlines and use only cellular phones, according to a recent study.

Preliminary results from the National Health Interview Survey show that the number of cellular-only homes grew 1.2 percent during the first six months of 2013. In addition, nearly one in six homes with a landline telephone essentially never use it, receiving almost all calls on cellular phones.

The report, published twice a year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, measures telephone coverage for the U.S population. It added the question of whether households had landlines in 2003, as cellular usage began to supplant traditional telephone service. The percentage of wireless-only homes was less than 25 percent five years ago.

The trend is higher among young adults, with nearly two-thirds of 25- to 29-year-olds living in wireless-only households, according to the report. City-dwellers and renters are also more likely to sever the landline connection.